News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-08-11
ADETECTIVE STORY.
LUCK OFTEN HELPS THEM OUT
OUT OF A DILEMMA.
The Young Man who had his Hand
Caught in a Trap.

Caught in Trap.
Ten or twelve years ago, when / wa
on the detective force of Cincinnati, tw
or three very shrewd rascals chung up
the town for three or four weeks In
way which annoyed us not little
They were chaps known rs porch climt
ers, and the way they did their bushes
was simply slick. Porch climbing wa
then in its infancy. A sneak thief NIGH
be ready to Ia Ike advantage of an Opel
door or window on the lower story, bu
as for "shinning up" column to reacl
a balcony, or using light ladder to en-
ter chamber window, no one had eve
tried it.
i The very first job done by the gang
resulted in haul of $500 worth of jew
elry. Your common thief no sooner ha
any plunder in his hand than he hasten
off to the pawnshop to make a raise
This jewelry was not put up, neithe
were the second and third hauls. Thel
we knew that we had to deal with ras
Gals who had come well heeled and were
holding on to their stuff or shipping i
to some other city for sale. The first
three robberies were made at the supper
hour, when all the family were in the
dining-room or down stairs. The papers
made such an ado about it as to place
citizens ON their guard, and the thieves
changed their hours. 1t was in summer
and very hot weather, and all upstairs
windows were open for ventilation.
They went into three or four houses
through second-story windows in the
evening or up to as late as midnight,
and cleaned out jewel cases without be-
ing seen or heard.
Perhaps the boldest feat was the sixth
job undertaken. There was a small
one-story house standing beside an ele-
CANT mansion. The little house was on
a corner One of the fellows mounted
to the roof, crcpt along to the larger
house, and then ascended the tin con-
ductor on the big house to a bath room
window. The blinds inside were lock
ed, but he hung to the sill with one
hand until he could open them with the
other. People on the street saw him,
and a policeman called out to know
what he was doing. The fellow was
then sitting in the window dangling his
legs in a careless way, and he replied:
Jim and / do that for exercise every
night"
With that he disappeared into the
bath room and proceeded to ransack the
various rooms on that floor. 1t seemed
that all tho family except daughter
were away to a neighbours, and the
young lady had Il beau in the parlor.
The servants were out on rear veranda,
and the rooms were thus at the mercy of
the thief. He took his time in making his
search, and, while he was after money
and jewelry first, he did not despise
laces, opera glasses, and valuable bric-a-
brac. He made up large bundle of
| stuff, took a cigar which he found on Il
mantel, and was putting away i'll the
| coolest manner when he desc Andod the
front stairs. The girl heard him and
came out into the hall and asked:
did you want to see papa p
eyes, my dear - was tho ready rdply :;
'fbut he seems to be ont. Tell him /
called, will you?''
| ''What is the namel 2
"Wilcox-Judge Wilcox. l brought
my Egyptian curios over for him to look
at, but some other night will do as we'll =
She saw him depart without thought
of how he entered, and tie robbery was,
of course, discovered later On. The de-
| tectives were instructed to let every
! thing drop to hunt down these slick fel-
| lows, and there was any amount of ours
| ing and jawing over our i'll luck. We
had every hotel and boarding house
under strict scrutiny, but we could turn
up no suspicious characters answering
to the description of these The man
who sat on the sill of the bath room
window was said to have long, black
whiskers. The one who passed for
] Judge Wilcox had auburn Burnsides,
and was an unctrlous sort of fellow.
| Five hundred men could have been
found in days hunt to answer these
descriptions. For many days the post
! office was watched, strangers were
dogged about, depots guarded, and gar
dens and concert halls looked after, but
we made no arrests. At least every sec
ond night there was a fresh robbery,
and every second day the papers had
opportunity to come out with fresh
article and bella Dor us. We were seem
ingly doing all that ren could do, aud
our position was truly uncomfortable.
The climax came about in the oldest
sort of a way. On one of the fashion
able thOroughfares lived an old maid
if I remember right, the mans sister.
She was pretty well off, and always had
several hundred dollars in a bureau
drawer i'll her room. She had read
about the work of the gang, and was in
a state of terror for fear the house would
be visited. One day brilliant idea oc-
Cured to her She would capture one
of the mob. She planned it that one
of them would climb up to her corner
window by means of the conductor, and
enter without disturbing her, as she
was a sound sleeper, and go for the
money. What did she do but go ont
and buy steel trap-something big
enough to hold a fox. She got one of
the servants to set it for her, and the
open trap was placed in the top bureau
drawer, and the chain led out through
the back side and mad fast.
Two nights passed without another
depreciation. We were keeping such a
sharp lookout that the fellows had to be
more fly. On the third night, at ex-
actly quarter Of twelve, the old maid
was aroused from her deep sleep by n
human yell of pain, and she was no
sooner on end than she saw that she had
caught her man. He was down on his
knees in front of the bureau, and both
hands were fast in the trap. His first
yell was his only one. When he found
the woman was awake he calmly OBJ
served:
''Excuse me, but 1 think I'm in the
wrong room. Please don't make any
disturbance about it.
"Who are you 2
"a friend of Wills, and We both
came home little sprung. Won't you
please help me to get my hands loose %
There was viii about the house
the mans own son-but he had not been
ont that evening, nor was he III the
habit of drinking. Without getting
out of bed the woman touched an elec-
tric button, and within ten minutes the
house was aroused, and two policemen
had the man in charge. The jaws of
the trap had caught him about the
wrists, and he had suffered good deal
of pain He was the Judge Wilcox
chap, Burnsides, JUNCTION, and all.
When taken to the station his whiskers
were found to be glued on, and he also
had false wig. When these We're re-
moved he stood forth as pert and trim
thief as you would wish to overhaul.
He turned out to be a New Orleans man
named Davis, and was only 26 years
old.
The capture of Davis partner followed
swiftly, and also in a curious way. AS
train was about ready to leave for the
north, IL spruce young fellow came into
the baggage department at the depot to
get his trunk checked. It was there all
right but he GOT into ianole with the